Weakened Oldham exit at first hurdle

DANNY Knight (with ball) scores for the Roughyeds against Barrow in a 14-14 draw with the Co-operative Championship One side.

STRUCK hard by injury and placed in the strongest of the five pools, Roughyeds faced an enormous task in the Northern Rail Nines at Blackpool and subsequently slipped out of the competition after the first round of matches.

At the end of the pool games the 18 competing clubs were positioned, according to the points they had accumulated, in one composite league table and only the top four clubs advanced to the next stage.

Roughyeds, faced with three opponents from the Co-operative Championship, began well with a 14-14 draw against Barrow thanks to one goal and tries by Alistair Williams, Scott Mansfield and Danny Knight.

Next they played a very strong Sheffield Eagles squad and were well beaten 40-0 by a side mainly comprising first-team players.

In their third game they encountered Featherstone Rovers, this time going down 26-12 in a game in which several Roughyeds players, among them Ben Mellor, Ross Coates, Austen Barrowclough and Mark Smith, picked up injuries and had to leave the field.

The Roughyeds' 12 points were recorded by Tommy Connick and Scott Mansfield, who each scored a try and then added the extras.

The competition was claimed by Halifax, who saw off Sheffield 16-4 in the final.

The winners were made to work for their place in the final, seeing off Swinton 18-14 in a semi-final that went to extra time, while the Eagles overcame Keighley at the same stage.

In the main the Roughyeds squad was made up of players from the successful reserve team, most of whom had played at Widnes on Thursday night, because of a spate of injuries affecting various members of the first-team squad.

The club and their coaching and medical staff can now turn their attentions to getting senior players fully fit and ready for next Sunday's vitally important Championship One clash with Blackpool Panthers at Fylde RU, which will go a long way towards determining final league placings at the upper end of the division.




BATLEY upset the odds to snatch a dramatic late 25–24 win over Widnes in the Northern Rail Cup final.



The Yorkshire side had trailed 24–15 with just 12 minutes remaining but former Rochdale Hornets winger Alex Brown turned the game on its head with a quickfire try double, his match–winning second coming after 78 minutes.

Batley's victory was their first silverware since 1998, giving the club the right to apply for a Super League licence but the Championship outfit have no immediate elite division aspirations.

“I think there are players with Super League potential – Johnny Campbell and Sean Hesketh, just to name just two,” said Bulldogs captain Paul Handforth.